Brooke Henderson win in another rout and Nelly Korda hangs on in LPGA Match Play
Brooke Henderson is having an easy time in the T-Mobile Match Play at Shadow Creek
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Brooke Henderson needed only 27 holes to win two matches. The Canadian needs to win one more to be assured of reaching the weekend at the T-Mobile Match Play.
One day after a 6-and-5 win in the opening round, Henderson pulled away late by winning five of the last seven holes Thursday in a 5-and-4 win over Peiyun Chien of Taiwan.
One more day of round-robins matches remain at Shadow Creek before the winner of each of the 16 groups advance to the knockout stage on the weekend. While no one clinched her group, at least 18 players were eliminated on another day of this fickle format.
Nelly Korda, the defending champion and No. 1 player, will have to beat Ariya Jutanugarn to win her group. Korda halved her opening match and she had a few shaky moments in a 1-up win over Jennifer Kupcho.
Korda had a 4-foot putt to go 3 up with three holes to play, missed the putt, and then gave away the the par-5 16th with a bogey. It came down to the 18th, and Kupcho pulled her drive to the left side of the hazard. Her next shot clipped a tree and she stopped watching, only to discover the ball was on the green.
Korda's approach was 40 feet long, and she did well to lag it to a foot. Kupcho missed her 30-foot birdie attempt and Korda moved on to a decisive match against Jutanugarn. The Thai is 2-0 and would only need a halve against Korda.
“Very questionable by me,” Korda said of her play. “Definitely don’t have my best stuff right now.. That’s the greatest thing about match play, is even if you don’t have your best stuff you have to grind it out."
Lydia Ko joined Henderson as the only players who have yet to play the 15th hole in either of the two rounds. The difference is Ko lost her first match (6 and 4) before a 6-and-5 victory Thursday over Gabriela Ruffels. Everyone in Ko's group is 1-1.
If any group ends in a tie, the winner is decided by a sudden-death playoff.
Hyo Joo Kim, coming off a playoff victory last week in Arizona, won the last four holes to rally against Nanna Koertz Madsen for her second win this week. Kim and Maja Stark are 2-0 and will play Friday to see who advances.
Rose Zhang conceded her match against Albane Valenzuela after three holes. Zhang had complained about a neck injury in the opening round. That sets up a strange scenario.
If Zhang can't play against Meghan Khang, Valenzuela would be eliminated. If Zhang can play and beats Khang, Valenzuela could win the group by beating Nataliya Guseva.
Among those eliminated are Jin Young Ko and Leona Maguire in another bizarre situation.
Ko needed to win the match to have any shot at the weekend. The match was dormie after 16, meaning Ko was eliminated. But the South Korean won the next two holes to halve the match, and that eliminated Maguire.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
